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Jenney Lane Plan Wins Unanimous Approval at MVC

After nearly four months of review, the Martha's Vineyard
Commission last night unanimously approved a 10-unit affordable housing
project for the center of a densely-settled Edgartown neighborhood just
behind Upper Main street.

"If the commission were in the business of building affordable
housing, I think the plan that would be presented by us would looks a
lot like this," said commissioner Richard Toole, complimenting the
project's cluster-style design, the vernacular architecture and
the proximity to town services.

Proposed by the Island Affordable Housing Fund and South Mountain
Company, the so-called Jenney Lane development makes use of a 2.5-acre
piece of vacant land in the otherwise built-out Pine street and Curtis
Lane neighborhood.

Sold by Upper Main street residents Ralph and Olivia Jenney for a
discounted price, the site will host 10 Island families struggling to
enter the housing market. Each of the homes will be sold to households
earning less than 140 per cent of the county median income -
$85,000 for a family of four.

The development will enter a neighborhood already in transition. A
traditionally working class community, the homes along Pine street,
Curtis Lane and several other streets in the area have gradually been
purchased by mainland buyers over the last decade. Of the nearly 100
homes on these streets, only half are now home to year-round Island
families.

The project - thought by many to be the ideal approach to
easing the Island's affordable housing dilemma - met
passionate protests from several neighbors, who said the additional
traffic would unduly burden an already fragile road and sidewalk system.
Access road complications - which resulted in the elimination of
one of the two entrances because of unclear ownership rights of Fisher
Road - stirred further scrutiny and concern.

Even though the commission signed off on the Jenney Lane project
last night, many of the access, traffic and site design issues have yet
to be resolved. Those issues now rest on the shoulders of the Edgartown
planning board members who will review the project next.

"Some would say we're passing the buck," said
James Athearn, chairman of the commission last night.

The commissioners spent several hours crafting conditions that
offered the planning board enough room to come to its own conclusion
about some of the hot-button issues. The planning board will have the
power to mandate that a second road access be created along Curtis Lane,
a pedestrian and bike path be built and that houses can be shifted
slightly in the current site plan. If the Edgartown board demands such
changes to the plan, the applicant will not need to return to the
commission for the final say.

The only detail to which the commission held fast involved
driveways. If the planning board agrees to the neighbors' pleas
that the each home have an individual driveway instead of two central
parking lots, the commission wants to take another look at the project.

The commissioners acknowledged they walked a fine line in
differentiating between regional and local concerns.

"From the regional standpoint, it's clear-cut.
It's in one of the best places we have left to build affordable
housing. It doesn't create a so-called ghetto. We could beat this
to death. . . . If the town [planning board] wants to pick it apart and
rearrange it, fine," said commissioner John Best.

Though commissioners agreed that even an ideal affordable housing
project like Jenney Lane involved its share of compromises, nothing
significant undermined its worth as a boost to affordable housing
efforts.

"It's an incredibly important proposal. We know there
are some problems, but most of the problems are preexisting conditions
to the neighborhood, some of which will be exacerbated by more density
in the neighborhood. But whatever exacerbation [happens, it] is not
greater than what would be created in a normal subdivision. It's
exemplary affordable housing," said commissioner Linda Sibley.